Jared Hughes kind of came out of nowhere last year to have a mighty fine season, possibly a little too good. He throws sinkers most of the time, it’s clearly his best pitch and his approach is predicated on it. He can’t be effective without it.

Hughes doesn’t miss many bats. He also had a pretty high FIP (4.05) and xFIP (3.89). Both of those numbers are much higher than what his ERA was.

His numbers were also helped out by a fairly low BAbip of .251. There is a real concern that he may regress slightly, but he is a good relief option for the Pirates. He is also one of Mellie’s favorite players, but that has nothing to do with this.

Hughes probably doesn’t even fit into a late innings role because he can’t miss bats, his minor league numbers confirm that. They also show that he has been hit harder in his minor league career than he was last season. On top of that he has been known to give up a surprising number of homers for such an extreme groundball guy.

I don’t think Hughes is a lock to make the team out of camp. He still has plenty of options remaining and quite frankly the Pirates may have players with a higher upside to take up bullpen innings. I certainly wouldn’t go about writing his name in ink, though I think he does have the inside track at a job.

To be enthralled with "missing bats" is to forget (or never know) the great phrase by Sandy Koufax: "I became a good pitcher when I stopped trying to make them miss the ball and started trying to make them hit it."